A huge shout out to the Cliffhanger CrewEspecially the porn and sausage peddling girlies for not teaching my daughter new swear-words. What incredible weather too. As hot as a welding spark down your undies, except all over. How nice it was to complain about the heat rather than wind and rain. Great to be able to get good coffee too. Big ups to RIPE.
I was nervous as all hell about pushing the Tuono cos of it's twitchy behaviour at the ragged edge of performance but secretly confident about what the CBR had to offer. Oh how the Gods of speed were to teach me a lesson.
First up were a few flying quarters on the Ape, and I manged to quell the nerves and post a 243kmh run. Not bad I thought, as I saw the other v-twins and a Speed Triple there as my natural competition. I will be advocating for a "Naked" class in future. I think that there were a couple of TL's posting better times. The only other Italian V-twin running was Malcolms S4RS Monster. As it happens, the Tuono's natural enemy.
As gentlemen are prone to do (and there were no ladies riding at all), we all took lunch before having a crack at some standing quarters. I unveiled my magnificently painted CBR and eventually got a great launch with a best time of 12.4 seconds. More fun than being asked to head the Brazilian judging at university orientation. Flying quarters on the CBR next and this was where I learnt how woefully undergeared my banana coloured baby was. I had her beyond the red-line and pin-balling off the rev-limiter for a good kilometre before the speed trap. This delivered a speed of 197kmh. Koba had cracked 205 by this time and I had to try and reel him in.
No worries I thought, I have a 3 tooth smaller sprocket in the van that just might do the job. So, off I skive to realise my advantage. Changing sprockets dressed in black leather under the full glare of the mid-day sun is work best undertaken by serious men with black-ops experience. I gave it a go anyway and manged to get back to the start line for another flying quarter.
Made a great launch and could feel the longer legs in action so concentrated on trying to over-rev, but not bounce off the limiter. I was still maxed out way before the trap, but "that's got him" I thought. WTF! 195kmh? I obviously should have been harsher.
Not realising that I had made a MacDonalds breakfast of the CBR run, I got the Ape out for a standing quarter. What a larf! It felt like I was climbing all over the front of the bloody thing while trying to master the throttle. Even better than something better than judging brazilians. 11.34 seconds and now I want a drag bike.
The final run of the day was a flying quarter and I resolved to get the good tuck and hold the button down. I worked at tucking the elbows in, jammed my helmet under the screen and viewed the road through the screen like a distorted, insect smeared playstation game. Some weaving was experienced but I managed to hold it at around 10,000 revs in top. 10,500 is the rev-limiter. This was rewarded with a 254kmh speed through the trap. Stoked just doesn't describe it.The only other v-twin quicker was a TL1000R SP. My Ape has slightly lowered gearing than standard so I don't imagine it has a lot more to give so I'm not sure if I will bring it back.
But I want that 400 trophy....
Reply With Quote
between the 400 models.
Originally Posted by Clivoris
Good onya for working though. Gotta pay for those race-bikes somehow.
What with the slipperiness of my yellow peril you may be tempted to lead me astray.
Bookmarks